US Department of Justice defends prosecution of Comey over seashell post

The ex-FBI chief faces accusations of transmitting threats and exploiting controversy to market his upcoming novel.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has defended its prosecution of former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey after a social media post of seashells arranged in “86 47” was shared on Instagram last year.

Federal prosecutors allege the post was a coded threat against US President Donald Trump.

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“There is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s [social media] post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump’,” prosecutors wrote in court motions filed in federal court on Tuesday.

Prosecutors also cast doubt on Comey’s account that he is the victim of “vindictive” and “selective” prosecution and that he just happened to find the seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47” while walking on a beach in North Carolina.

The entry for “86” from Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, notes that its meaning is “to throw out”, “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to”. Comey’s lawyers have said that the slogan has long meant to “eject” or “to get rid of” and that it has been featured on thousands of items sold online while being periodically displayed at protests.

Trump is the 47th United States president, and prosecutors allege that the number 47 in Comey’s post referred to him.

Prosecutors further suggested that the former FBI director’s May 2025 post on Instagram was an obvious ploy to sell copies of a forthcoming novel titled FDR Drive, in which a prosecutor pursues a far-right social media personality who calls out his rivals by name and inspires his fans to commit violence against them.

Comey is charged with threatening the president and transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.

Shortly after the post provoked an outcry last May, according to the government’s filings, Comey’s publishing agent allegedly observed in a text message to him that he had “gone viral”. Comey allegedly responded that that was not his intention, but “I’ll be OK if it sells books”. The agent replied, “Music to an agent’s ears.”

Prosecutors also said that two minutes before the post was made, Comey’s wife allegedly texted him a screenshot of a definition of “86” that said “to get rid of or refuse service”.

Comey had deleted the post shortly after he began receiving backlash, saying he did not know that anyone would interpret the numbers as a call to violence.

Tuesday’s court filings object to Comey’s motion to suppress evidence obtained through FBI search warrants and to open up details of grand jury proceedings in his case.

Comey’s lawyers contend that investigators in the case misled judges, submitted documents containing false statements, withheld key facts and repeatedly came up empty in their efforts to prove that Comey intended a physical threat or knew that the number 86 could suggest violence.

Comey’s lawyers have called the indictment, which was filed months after an earlier and unrelated case against him was dismissed, part of a Trump retribution campaign targeting one of the president’s vocal critics.

Trump has long called for prosecuting his political opponents and had, in particular, set his sights on Comey early on in his second term in the White House. The former FBI chief headed the early days of an investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign faced collaboration with Russia.

As director from 2013 to 2017, Comey oversaw investigations that angered both Democrats and Republicans during the 2016 election cycle. Trump later fired him in 2017, after serving only three and a half years of his 10-year term. Since then, Comey has remained a top target for Trump supporters seeking retaliation related to the Moscow investigation.

The move triggered a major political fallout and scrutiny over whether the termination was linked to the FBI’s investigation into whether foreign actors had indeed interfered with the 2016 election.

After Comey’s abrupt dismissal, Special Counsel Robert Mueller took over the Russia investigation. The probe lasted nearly two years and found that Russia did make major efforts to swing the 2016 election. Ultimately, it did not prove there was any criminal conspiracy involving Trump or his team, but the case hung over Trump for years, and he condemned it as a “witch-hunt”.